AP via 9NEWS–clearly this makes it all better!
Enter the newest announcement from Gessler’s office: an unprecedented $850,000 ad campaign on television, radio, and in print to encourage Coloradans to register to vote.
The ads promote a message that it’s simple to register to vote in Colorado, or to check your registration information for accuracy. These things can be done on the Secretary of State’s website.
Gessler says plans for the ad campaign have been in the works for the better part of a year, but he does hope this proves that he is as serious about registering eligible voters as he is about getting rid of ineligible voters.
“I think it does disprove some of these accusations that unfortunately I think have taken on real partisan tones,” Gessler said. [Pols emphasis]
In Gessler’s efforts to get non-citizens off the voter rolls, critics say he’s confused or scared voters who are eligible, especially among minority groups like Hispanics, who tend to vote for Democrats.
The story above leaves out a fairly important detail, 7NEWS adds helpfully:
The $850,000 outreach effort will be paid for with federal funds.
Because, folks, this appears to be a campaign paid for with Help America Vote Act voter education funds that are not new, and not unique to either Colorado or our embattled Secretary of State Scott Gessler. Meaning we really don’t know where the AP got the word “unprecedented” to describe any of this. In fact, were it not for the controversy Gessler finds himself embroiled in over his so-far unsuccessful but incredibly determined efforts to root out “noncitizen voters,” which has resulted in thousands of perfectly legal U.S. citizens getting nastygrams from Gessler’s office…well, this seems like the sort of thing Gessler and his conservative friends would consider wasteful spending under different circumstances, doesn’t it? After all, why do people need an ad to tell them to do their civic duty?
But for today, Gessler is only too delighted to put a smiley face on the “Honey Badger.”
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feels the need for window dressing is encouraging in itself. He knows the whole world is watching. It’s going to be close in Colorado. The continuing pressure is the best defense against any really blatant machinations Gessler might be contemplating to deliver his state the way Florida was delivered in 2000 and the Ohio Dem vote was so severely suppressed in 2004. We may not be able to hound him out of office before his time but we seem to be hounding him into a certain degree of caution in terms of how far he’ll push all out election stealing. That’s something.
Gessler is not disenfranchising anyone, he is just cleaning up a small portion of the rolls. At the same time, Gessler is reaching out to the huge numbers of Colorado citizens who aren’t registered and getting them to register.
When will Democrats admit that he’s not hurting anyone, and helping ensure the integrity of our elections fairly? This outage campaign can’t last forever. Gessler isn’t taking anyone’s rights away, and this proves he genuinely wants to make voting easy. What Gessler doesn’t want is to make CHEATING easy. Why do Democrats want that? Why criticize Gessler for trying to register new voters?
Soon Democrats will be out of excuses, and voters will want to know why.
until you answer questions I’ve asked just to say I’m speaking in terms of prevention. I think this helps prevent worse things he might try in a tight race in order to steal the election in the future. Worse than mere voter intimidation. We already know he has no integrity. If you reply (doubtful) don’t expect a response from me until you have answered at least the last three questions I’ve asked you first. You can search through my comments for them.
He IS disenfranchising, if legitimate voters are being taken off of the rolls unless they take corrective actions. That is, like, you know, the definition of disenfranchisment.
And he is NOT proactively registering people from his own initiative and funds. It’s being paid for by the tax payers.
Your intellect rates less than the mullet jumping in my bayou.
What part of “permanent”, as in “permanent mail ballot” doesn’t Scott Gessler get? The voter registration form asks if we wish to receive a permanent mail ballot. There is no asterisk or any other notation indicating we won’t receive a mail ballot if we miss voting in an election. Yet, this year Scott Gessler has decided not to send a mail ballot to just those voters. What legal authority does he have to change the rules?
The biggest problem under Scott Gessler’s nose is not voter fraud, but accurately counting votes that are cast. There has never been an election recount that didn’t have a different result, sometimes even changing the outcome. I am outraged that our election system can’t seem to accurately count the legitimate votes that are cast. Scott Gessler should be spending his time and our money insuring our votes are accurately counted, not chasing phantom voter fraud that doesn’t even exist.
that there’d be that many unregistered eligible voters in Douglas, El Paso, and Mesa counties?
I’ll believe this could be merely just window dressing after I see the demos from this ad campaign.
Is there anyone here who could get a statement from them. Could Gessler campaign in any way cause problems for the campaign that OFA has been conducting for over a year to register voters?